St. Louis HVAC Systems and Electricity Consumption

Electricity plays a major role in running your HVAC system regardless of how your system operates.

HVAC systems are essential to keeping us comfortable inside our homes, and the system works throughout the year to make sure we do not feel too cool or warm regardless of the weather outside. It is important to understand how your HVAC system works, and what problems it can develop.

While not every HVAC system requires electricity to work, many of them do. Your air conditioner, furnace and ventilation system needs access to the central line. Homeowners should understand what this means for their system, and what problems they should be aware of.

How do HVAC systems use electricity?

The way an HVAC system works depends mainly on which components need electricity to operate. Here is a summary of how each of the systems uses electricity.

Air conditioning system: Most air conditioners are electric and use electricity based on the number of BTUs produced. If your air conditioning system produces 25,000 BTUs, and has a SEER of 14, it can produce 14 BTUs for each watt of electricity per hour. This means it consumes around 1785.7 watts per hour when the air conditioning system is running at maximum capacity. If your air conditioner runs at maximum capacity for 8 hours each day, 30 days a month, you will likely see a measurement unit of 428 kilowatt hours on your electricity bill.

Heating system: Your heating system may not use electricity, and you may instead have an oil or gas combustion furnace or boiler, but if you have an electric furnace, it will use electric power to heat the filament. It will also use electricity to power the blower fan motor that pushes the air across the filament into the air handler. If you have a 1500 square feet home, your furnace can consume up to 8,000 watts per hour to heat up your home.

Ventilation system: Ventilation systems almost always need electricity to filter and circulate air inside a building. The mechanical filters depend on the movement of air to remove particulate matter. However, ventilation systems have numerous components such as fans and condenser coils to conserve energy as the air is exchanged between the indoors and outdoors.

Electricity plays a major role in running your HVAC system regardless of how your system operates. To ensure that your system continues to work as intended without giving you much trouble, you should make sure that the power system is checked on a regular basis. Regular, scheduled maintenance of your HVAC system is essential for keeping it in good working condition.

Contact the St. Louis HVAC Experts at Hely Heating and Air!

If you feel that your HVAC system is running below its peak efficiency, or your energy costs are increasing without any evident reason, you should have Hely assess your system and recommend ways to improve its performance and energy efficiency. Call us today at (636) 305-9555!